Our history

Brief historical background

The question of opening the first pedagogical higher educational establishment in Ufa was raised in 1905 after the transference of the Orenburg Academic District center from Orenburg to Ufa. The center served the Orenburg, Ufa and Perm Provinces as well as the Turgai and Ural Regions.

On July 2nd, 1909 the Russian Minister of Public Enlightenment A.N. Shvarts made an order about the permission to open a three-year teacher training institute in Ufa on July 1st, 1909, i.e. the day when the financing started. At the same time the Ministry of Public Enlightenment ordered the Orenburg Academic District Warden to search for a suitable candidacy for the post of director. The eventual choice was the Ufa Classical School teacher Aleksandr Nikolayevich Lisovsky.

On October 4th, 1909 Ufa Teacher Training Institute was opened, it was located at 9, Telegrafnaya Street (currently it is one of the buildings of Zagir Ismagilov Ufa Art Academy at 9, Tsyurupa). After the Orenburg Academic District Warden announced the institute open, a telegram was written and sent at once on behalf of everyone present to the Minister of Public Enlightenment expressing loyal feelings towards the Emperor. It was signed by the Ufa Governor, the Ufa and Menzelinsk Bishop Right Reverend Nafanil, the Orenburg Academic District Warden, the Uyezd Nobility Leader, the Provincial Zemstvo Council Chairman, the Ufa Teacher Training Institute Director and other officials present at the celebration. This telegram was presented to the Emperor Nicholas II by the Minister of Public Enlightenment on November 12, 1909, among other 20 messages from different Russian corners “with expression of loyal feelings, boundless love and devotion”.

In 1912 the Institute had its first graduates. 24 persons completed the full course of studies. By the decision of the Pedagogical Council of June 4th, 1912, they were honored with the titles of city school teachers. Mikhail Bortkevich and Nikolai Samarin graduated with gold medals, Iosif Antonyuk, Nikita Mladentsev, Iosif Pankov, Nikolai Proskuryakov and Dmitry Tolmachyov graduated with silver medals. All the graduates were placed on jobs of teachers in city schools of the Orenburg Academic District.

In September 1917 second-year students were first divided into two groups for further tuition: a group for studying physics and mathematics and a group for studying natural science and geography. Admission to the first year of studies was administered separately for each of the 3 departments: the Department of History and Literature, the Department of Physics and Mathematics and the Department of Natural Science and Geography.

In 1919 Ufa Teacher Training Institute was transformed into Institute of Public Education. In 1923 the Institute got the word “Practical” in its name and started additional training of agricultural specialists.

In 1929 it served as the basis for Timiryazev Bashkir State Pedagogical Institute (BSPI). In 1930 BSPI once again underwent internal reorganization, the departments were renamed faculties (Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, Faculty of Natural Science, Faculty of Geography, Faculty of History and Philology), which already had 15 academic departments functioning under them. In the same year tuition by correspondence was introduced, and the year after extramural form of tuition appeared at the Institute.

In 1957 Pedagogical Institute was transformed into Bashkir State University by the decree of the USSR Council of Ministers of July 20th, 1957. On November 6th the grand opening of the university, which happened to be the 37th university in the country, took place. Its founder and first chancellor was Shaikhulla Khabibullovich Chanbarisov.

Over the years of its existence the university has become the epitome of the vast power of knowledge and a native temple for lots and lots of people.

Facts indicate that the first success was achieved in training professional humanists. In 1934 the student of the Faculty of Bashkir Language and Literature Khadiya Davletshina takes part in the work of the First Convention of USSR Writers where her artistic work receives ardent support of Maxim Gorky and Aleksandr Fadeyev themselves. Later on it was Khadiya Davletshina who managed to write the classical realistic novel “Irgiz”. The second person who succeeded in entering the all-Union stage was Professor Dzhalil Kiyekbayev. Comparative historical analysis of Turkic and Indo-European languages was recognized as a global scholarly achievement in the domain of linguistics. Khadiya Davletshina and Dzhalil Kiyekbayev’s success prove the Renaissance influence of Bashkir State University on development of Bashkir literature and philology.

Great progress is made at the Faculty of History. First of all, one needs to mention works in which the ideological, social and national essence of Bashkir uprisings of the XVIII century has been reconsidered and Zaki Validi’s social, political, scholarly, literary and journalistic activities have been reconstituted. The Faculty also provided for writing and publishing of “History of Bashkortostan” in two volumes since ancient times up to the end of the XX century.

The University developed alongside the development of Bashkortostan and the whole country. Thus, due to the development of oil producing and processing industries and machine building physical, mathematical, chemical, biological, geological and geographical sciences got a powerful shot in the arm. In this respect one remembers the names of Professors Dmitry Ozhiganov, Valentin Ivanov, Mirkashir Farztdinov, Fanil Sayakhov, Alexei Leontyev, Karl Minsker, Yevgeny Zhuravlev, Grigory Zabluda, Yury Kulagin and Kamil Valiyev.

During those years BSU truly became a center of formation of social world-view scholarly thought. Professors Akhnyaf Kireyev, Midkhat Gainullin, Lev Barag, Igor Raspopov, Romen Nazirov and others became recognized authorities in the sphere of humanist disciplines. The Chancellor Shaikhulla Chanbarisov was heading the educational establishment for more than two decades. He persistently worked on creating material facilities for the university, consolidating the university by teaching staff and introducing new majors. It was he who was the first to publish a scholarly paper on the development of university education in the USSR, which was highly appraised by higher education professionals.